When it comes to marketing, there’s nothing more important than metrics to investigate the health of your paid advertising, SEO and more. Often, these reports are extremely detailed, making the data difficult to use. Using Google Data Studio, you can simplify your reporting and visualize your data for game-changing decision making.
What Is Google Data Studio?
Google Data Studio gives you all the tools necessary to visualize your critical data. According to Google, with Data Studio you can:
- Create charts and tables to help you visualize your data
- Connect a variety of data sources
- Explore your data and gain insights
- Collaborate on reports with your team
- Speed up the report creation process with built-in sample reports or create your own custom report templates
Data is often used to make important decisions about your marketing, PPC and SEO efforts. How can you make these decisions using data you don’t understand? Google Data Studio helps you see your data in an easy to understand way using customizable charts, tables and more.
Visualize Your Data Using Connectors
Inside Google Data Studio, there are over 150 connectors or data sources you can add to your reports. For example, you can use Supermetrics to visualize all your marketing data in one place. Or, you can connect to Google Analytics to create platform-specific reports.
How to Use Google Data Studio to Create Your First Report
Believe it or not, you can create your first report in Google Data Studio in just a few minutes. According to Google’s Data Studio Quick Start Guide, there are only a handful of steps involved.
1. Create a Report
To create a simple report, start by logging in to your Data Studio account. From here, you can start by creating a new blank report or you can use a pre-built report template. Once you make your selection, the report will open with plenty of room for your data.
2. Get Your Data
You can add a data source by clicking “Create New Data Source” or you can choose from Google Analytics sample data. Depending on the data source you choose, you may be required to authenticate the connection to retrieve the data. When you’re ready, simply click “Add to Report” to add the data to your new report. You can add as many data sources or connectors as you need to create your report.
3. Create Charts & Add Components
Is your data ready for visualization? You can use the toolbar to add components to your report and the properties panel to change the look and feel of the component. There are many different charts and components to choose from, including tables, scorecards, bar charts, pie charts, maps and more. You can also move, resize and change the component to fit your needs.
4. View & Share Your Report
Once your report is complete, it’s easy to view and share your report with your team for fast collaboration. You can click “View” at the top of your report to see what it’ll look like to your team. When you’re ready to share it, you can allow access to others just as you would with a Google Doc or Sheet.
Simplified Reporting Is Productive Reporting
When attempting to understanding how well a marketing campaign is working, reporting is necessary. With simplified reporting, you’ll ensure you and your team remain productive, instead of spending too much time trying to understand mountains of data. To learn more about simplified reporting through Google Data Studio, send us a message.
